At last, a decision that holds water

The Bracks Government's greatest long-standing policy blunder has been to allow environmental activists to dictate water policy.

Environment Minister John Thwaites came to office baring a hairy green chest.

He cancelled long-standing plans to cater for Melbourne's water needs by damming the Mitchell River.

Not only was the project shelved but the area was made into a national park, designed to deny forever the river's water to a growing city population.

An apostle of the "we should use less" school, Mr Thwaites' legacy is the depletion of the dams supplying the city's water.

Among the reasons against a new dam is that it would cost a billion dollars.

Rather than spend that the Government has been putting out meaningless propaganda tracts like "A new dam will not create new water".

It has also introduced a multitude of regulations and subsidies to conserve household water use.

These include regulations requiring three-star showerheads, dual-flush toilets, backyard water tanks and subsidies for various water-saving appliances.  Collectively these amount to a mere hill of beans in restraining water use.

The Government has also commissioned endless reports, including grants to the 47 regional councils to develop water conservation plans for each council's own facilities.

None of these has offered any magic pudding on how to save water.

More people mean more water requirements.  And if we had our druthers, most of us would use more water per head for washing and gardening.

Of course, it is important that we pay the real cost of the water.

But 85 per cent of household water costs comprise the transport rather than the water itself.

So, even if the water itself was to treble in price, it would only mean a 30 per cent increase in costs at the tap.  This would deter some, but not very much, use.

It is now more than two decades since the commissioning of Victoria's last major dam, the Thomson.

With a population rise of 30 per cent, more water must be procured.

As industry and households in Melbourne use only 8 per cent of available supplies, this is not a difficult task.

Farmers are willing sellers at a price city users can afford.

Recurring droughts in Victoria mean we need a buffer.

The Government's true believers in global warming think this will further reduce Victoria's rainfall, making them doubly derelict in their inaction.

This week's Budget finally introduced some sanity.  It foreshadowed four options to boost Melbourne's water supply.

These include treating sewerage for use as cooling in the Latrobe Valley, a desalination plant, and harvesting Yarra stormwater.

Clearly these three options are there as face-savers.  They enable the Government, "after an exhaustive review", to adopt its only real and financially responsible option.  That's to bring water from the Goulburn River.  This, though inferior to the previously planned Mitchell, is at least realistic.

So the Government has abandoned the hippie solutions to water policy and come to its senses.  But not before the community has suffered avoidable hardships and costs from water restrictions.

Will any politician pay the penalty for the past policy disaster?  I doubt it.

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